Modular building system

ABSTRACT

The modular building system includes a framework or carcassing formed by a number of prefabricated units assembled as a stack. Each unit includes a wooden framework structure having a succession of vertical uprights spaced apart with a standardized spacing. The vertical uprights span the entire height between floors. The vertical uprights form a wall of floor N+1 and rest directly on a vertical upright of level N, while assemblies lateral to the vertical uprights and/or assemblies on elements inserted between uprights can perform the functions of holding and bracing the vertical uprights.

RELATED U.S. APPLICATIONS

Not applicable.

STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT

Not applicable.

REFERENCE TO MICROFICHE APPENDIX

Not applicable.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to an industrialized building system with a wooden framework for the construction of buildings.

The present invention is more particularly related to a building system the performances of which permit stacks on many floor levels without applied supporting structures.

2. Description of Related Art Including Information Disclosed Under 37 CFR 1.97 and 37 CFR 1.98

Wooden building systems are already known, they are basically three in number, and each has advantages and drawbacks.

Known is thus the assembly of walls made of glued solid wood, where continuous wood panels are reconstructed from assemblies of small-section wood in crossed layers.

The so obtained panels are used for filling a bearing structure or as a bearing structure according to specific assembling standards.

Also known are upright-and-beam structures, including a large-section wooden structure that is assembled in floors, its dimensioning for vertical (uprights) and horizontal elements (beams) as well as their assembling connections take over all the necessary efforts to construct the building, the applied slabs as well as the wall panels the complete building envelope, and may eventually provide bracing functions for the bearing upright-and-beam structure.

Finally, also known are buildings of the wooden framework type, namely a wall panel is formed of vertical wooden uprights secured to a bottom rail and a top rail for forming a panel. The panel is formed of this braced structure by one—or two—bracing panel fastened to the structure. The so obtained panels are used for filling a bearing structure or as bearing structure according to specific assembling standards.

These wooden frame walls can be placed on the intermediate floors or on upright-and-beam structures.

The bottom and top rails have several mechanical and structural functions, namely:

-   -   fastening the bottom rail for keeping the panel in alignment and         at the reaction loads.     -   fastening the upper building elements to the top rail of the         panel.

The bottom and top rails permit to stitch the material or bracing system at the bottom and top edges of the panel.

The conventional wood-framework building has however limitations. Thus, the bottom and top rails of a wooden-framework panel take up the load carried by each upright in the direction perpendicular to the fiber of the wood.

The wood carries much more load per unitary area in the direction of the fiber than in the direction perpendicular to the fiber, the result is a crushing of the rails or the elements of solid wood at the horizontal fibers at the punctual reaction loads.

Typically, a conventional framework system with load transfer onto wood with horizontal fibers permits to carry buildings with wooden framework up to level R+2, i.e. three levels, beyond this there is a risk of punctual crushing of this solid wood that arrives at the structural limit.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The aim of the present invention is to provide a prefabricated building system with a wooden framework structure, which is transportable and which is largely stackable without applied bearing structure and without being limited in number of levels that can be built.

The modular building system according to the invention is characterized in that it consists of a building system in which the carcassing is made up of several prefabricated units assembled as a stack; and in that each of said units consists of a wooden framework structure comprising a succession of vertical uprights spaced apart with a standardized spacing, the vertical uprights of which span the entire height between floors, and in that said vertical uprights of the wall at floor N+1 each rest directly on a vertical upright of level N, while assemblies lateral to the vertical uprights and/or assemblies on elements inserted between vertical uprights perform the functions of holding and bracing said uprights.

The reaction load permitted per upright is much higher in this configuration, there is no wood with horizontal fibers taking up load and therefore no crushing.

No posts for taking up are necessary as in an upright-and-beam system, we remain in the standard wooden framework, upright cross-sections and spacing, structural class of wood according to the current legislation.

According to another version of the modular building system according to the invention, it is characterized in that it consists of a building system in which the carcassing is made up of several prefabricated units assembled as a stack; and in that each of said units consists of a wooden framework structure comprising a succession of vertical uprights spaced apart with a standardized spacing, the vertical uprights of which span the entire height between floors, and in that said vertical uprights of the wall at floor N+1 each rest on a vertical upright of level N after having interposed between them an element capable of ensuring the transfer or the reaction loads and made of a material or a composite of several materials, which is selected so as to maintain its mechanical properties under load stresses of the upper floor or floors, while assemblies lateral to the vertical uprights and/or assemblies on elements inserted between vertical uprights ensure the functions of holding and bracing said vertical uprights.

The interposed elements, made of a material or a composite of several materials, for example metal, are also likely to form fastening means.

Their nature and dimensional characteristics are of course chosen and calculated depending on the characteristics of the building, and namely the load they may be subjected to. This excludes the solid wood, which, as was mentioned above, can arrive at the structural limit of compression, and thus lead to risks of punctual crushing. These elements may consist of sheets, or profiles, non-restrictively of metal, for example angle irons. They can also be made of materials such as concrete, whether reinforced or not, a resin, whether or not reinforced with fibers, reconstituted wood panels, joined or glued industrial wood, laminated industrial wood, wood species selected for having the required compression properties, polymeric or biobased materials based on polymeric or natural binders, ferrous or non-ferrous metals, assemblies of several of these materials, by way of an example one that can provide compression or shear strength, the other providing torque strength, or one of the composite materials can be selected for providing fire resistance, for example.

It is possible that a vertical upright is not in the exact extension of the corresponding vertical upright of the upper and/or lower level. The aim of these elements is to permit the compensation of a shift in the longitudinal direction of the wall.

According to an additional feature of the building system according to the invention, the vertical uprights are assembled on a lower horizontal beam, which is intended to carry the floor joists.

According to another additional feature of the building system according to the invention, the vertical uprights are assembled on an upper horizontal beam, which is intended to carry ceiling or roof joists.

According to another additional feature of the building system according to the invention, the vertical uprights carry directly ceiling or roof joists.

The prefabricated units are intended to be stacked onto each other, and sets of stacked units may be juxtaposed, which can be carried out in many and varied ways, such as for example, non-restrictively, between longitudinal beams, between longitudinal beams and joists, between longitudinal beams and uprights, between uprights and uprights, between uprights and joists, etc.

The advantages and features of the building system according to the invention will become clear from the following description, which refers to the attached drawing, which represents several non-restrictive embodiments of same.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 shows a schematic perspective view of a structure made according to the building system according to the invention.

FIG. 2 shows a schematic perspective view of a variant of the same structure.

FIG. 3 shows a schematic perspective view of another embodiment of a structure according to the building system according to the invention.

FIG. 4 shows a partial schematic perspective view of yet another embodiment of a structure according to the building system according to the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

When referring to FIG. 1, there is a structure made according to the building system according to the invention.

Each module 1 comprises vertical uprights 2, which are parallel and spaced apart with a determined spacing for forming a bearing wall, which spacing may be ensured, not-restrictively, by spacers, not shown.

In the embodiment shown, the uprights 2 of the same wall of a module 1 are assembled in the lower portion by means of a horizontal beam 3, and the two horizontal longitudinal beams 3 of two opposite walls carry floor joists 4, while the uprights of the two walls 2 carry in the upper portion ceiling or roof joists 5.

Furthermore, each wall is reinforced by an inner 20 and/or an outer bracing 21. These assemblies can be of any kind, they will be calculated so as to be sufficient to guarantee the cohesion of the structure of the modular unit for transport and then during its use as a structural element of the building.

According to the invention, the upper module 1 rests on the lower module 1 through direct abutment of each of the vertical uprights 2 of the module 1 against an upper vertical upright 2 of the module 1 below. The vertical uprights 2 are thus, from one level to another, in the extension of each other, without interposition of wood with horizontal fibers taking over the load and therefore there is no risk of crushing.

When referring now to FIG. 2, we can see a variant in which the vertical uprights 2 of the same wall are assembled in the upper portion on a horizontal beam 50, which carries the ceiling or roof joists 5.

When referring now to FIG. 3, we can see another embodiment of a structure according to the invention. Thus, each of the vertical uprights 1 of an upper module 1 is not directly in abutment against a vertical upright 1 of the lower module 1, but there is interposed an element 6 made of a material, or a composite of several materials, which is selected so as to be capable to retaining its mechanical properties under the stress of the load of the upper floor or floors, and which may consist, non-restrictively, of a sheet.

Depending on the mechanical properties of the elements 6, it can be contemplated to shift the vertical uprights 2 of a lower module 1 relative to those of an upper module 1, the elements 6 ensuring the load transfer and being selected so as to withstand the compression and shear stresses generated by the building.

In this embodiment, it should be noted that the two stacked modules 1 share horizontal beams 30 and the same joists 40, which, for the lower module 1, form upper longitudinal beams and ceiling joists, respectively, while they form, for the upper module, lower longitudinal beams and floor joists, respectively.

FIG. 4, which relates to the same embodiment, permits to observe that, on the one hand, the elements 6 interposed between the vertical uprights 2 of a lower module 1 and those of an upper module 1 consists, non-restrictively, of angle-shaped profile bars and, on the other hand, the assemblies of the various components of the structure are made through connectors C.

Irrespective of the embodiment considered, the building system according to the invention permits to make structures without limitation of the number of levels. 

1. A modular building system, comprising: a carcassing being comprised of a plurality of prefabricated units assembled as a stack; wherein each unit comprises a wooden framework structure comprised of a succession of vertical uprights spaced apart with a standardized spacing, said vertical uprights spanning an entire height between floors, and wherein said vertical uprights form a wall at floor N+1, each vertical upright resting directly on a vertical upright of level N, while at least one assembly of a group consisting of assemblies lateral to said vertical uprights and assemblies on elements inserted between said vertical uprights hold and brace said vertical uprights.
 2. A modular building system, comprising: a carcassing being comprised of a plurality of prefabricated units (1) assembled as a stack, wherein each unit comprises a wooden framework structure being comprised of a succession of vertical uprights spaced apart with a standardized spacing, said vertical uprights spanning an entire height between floors, and wherein said vertical uprights form a wall at floor N+1, each vertical upright resting on a vertical upright of level N after having a means for ensuring transfer or the reaction loads interposed between said vertical uprights, said means for ensuring being comprised of a material or a composite of several materials so as to maintain mechanical properties under load stresses of the upper floor or floors, while assemblies lateral to the vertical uprights and/or assemblies on elements inserted between uprights ensure holding and bracing said vertical uprights.
 3. The modular building system according to claim 2, wherein the element is comprised of one of a group consisting of a metal sheet and profile bar.
 4. The modular building system according to claim 1, wherein the vertical uprights are assembled on a lower horizontal beam so as to carry floor joists.
 5. The modular building system according to claim 1, wherein the vertical uprights are assembled on an upper horizontal beam so as to carry ceiling or roofing joists.
 6. The modular building system according to claim 1, wherein the vertical uprights directly carry ceiling or roof joists. 